Homosexuality in Early Modern France

"Homosexuality in early modern France is an edited volume of translated documents about male and female homosexuality in France from the Renaissance through the Revolution. It is the first documentary collection in English about homosexuality in any Continental country during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. The authors have translated a wide variety of primary documents - religious, legal, criminal, polemical, literary, and philosophical - and have included everything from the arrest records of men accused of sodomy to the writings of Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Diderot. The sources provide empirical evidence about the ways in which people of both sexes and different classes experienced same-sex relations. They also show how these relations were condemned by theologians, jurists, and doctors; regulated by police and magistrates; and manipulated by contemporaries for polemical and political purposes. Homosexuality in Early Modern France examines how the themes of same-sex relations were used in discussions of religious, political, and social issues, and it provides an excellent vantage point from which to begin discussions of the representation and experiences of men and women involved in same-sex relations in early modern France. This collection offers scholars, students, and other readers access to texts and documents not previously available in English and provides them with raw material for understanding the questions about subcultures and identities that are at the heart of current debates on the history of sexuality."--Jacket.